Community guidelines
Last updated 6 November 2026
PaymentsDatabase is a working place for people in payments. These rules cover everything members put on it: profiles, sparks (posts), comments, polls, messages, groups, tenders, applications, jobs and company pages. They sit alongside the terms of use, which they form part of.
The short version
- Be real: your own name, your own job, your own company. No fake profiles, no speaking for an employer you do not work for.
- Be safe: no harassment, threats, hate or sharing anyone’s private information.
- Be honest: no scams, no misleading claims about what a provider does or charges, no spam.
- Stay lawful: nothing that helps fraud, money laundering, sanctions evasion or getting round card-scheme rules.
- Report what breaks these rules. We review reports, and we remove content, warn or suspend accounts.
1. Be real
Use your own name and a photo of yourself or none at all. One person, one personal account.
Describe your role and employer truthfully. A “verified” mark means a work email on that company’s own domain was confirmed; do not imply a verification you do not have, and do not post or apply as a company unless you are allowed to act for it.
Tenders must describe a real need of a real business. Posting a tender to collect provider pricing with no intention of choosing anyone, or to harvest contacts, is not allowed.
2. Be safe and respectful
No harassment, bullying, intimidation, stalking or threats, and no content that attacks people for a protected characteristic (such as race, ethnicity, nationality, religion, sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, disability or age).
No sexual content, graphic violence or content that glorifies harm. This is a professional network.
Do not share anyone else’s personal information without their permission — home addresses, private phone numbers, personal documents, private messages or anything that could identify a merchant who chose to post a tender without its name.
3. Be honest and useful
No scams, phishing, impersonation or fake offers. Never ask another member for passwords, one-time codes, card numbers or payment credentials.
Claims about a provider, a payment method, fees, approval rates or licences must be true to the best of your knowledge. Opinions are welcome; present them as opinions.
No spam: no bulk or repeated unsolicited messages, no copy-pasted pitches to people you have no reason to contact, no engagement trading, no misleading links. Connection requests and messages are rate-limited for this reason.
Posts written with AI tools are fine, but you are responsible for them as if you wrote every word, and they must not pretend to be someone else’s words.
4. Stay lawful — especially about money
Nothing illegal, and nothing that helps someone else break the law. In particular, nothing that promotes or arranges:
- fraud, card testing, chargeback or refund fraud, account takeover, or the sale of stolen card or identity data;
- money laundering, terrorist financing, or evading sanctions or export controls;
- getting round card-scheme or acquirer rules — transaction laundering, factoring, deliberately miscoding merchant category codes, or hiding a business’s real activity from a provider;
- unlicensed payment services, unlicensed gambling, or financial promotions that are not lawful where they are shown;
- counterfeit goods, weapons, drugs, or anything else that is illegal to sell.
Talking about high-risk sectors, how onboarding works, or why a merchant was declined is legitimate and welcome. Offering to help a business hide what it does is not.
5. Respect other people’s work
Post only what you have the right to post. Do not upload other people’s images, documents or research as your own. If you think something on the site infringes your rights, follow the copyright and IP policy.
6. Reporting
Posts, profiles and listings carry a Report option. Reports go to a person, not an algorithm. Tell us what is wrong and, if you can, why — it speeds things up.
For anything urgent, or something you cannot report from the page, write to [email protected]. If there is an immediate risk to someone’s safety, contact the emergency services first.
7. What we do
Depending on how serious it is and whether it has happened before, we may: remove or hide the content; limit what an account can do (for example sending messages or posting tenders); send a warning; suspend or close the account; refuse future registration; and, where the law requires it or someone is at risk, pass information to the relevant authorities.
We tell you when we act on your account, and why, unless the law or someone’s safety prevents it. Credits held in a suspended or closed account are dealt with under the terms of use.
If you think we got it wrong, reply to the notice or follow the complaints process. Someone who was not involved in the first decision will look at it again.
8. Listings, companies and providers
Providers and their staff may correct their own listing and answer tenders, but may not post fake reviews or relationships, run down competitors with untrue claims, or create profiles to boost their own listing.
Paid placements follow the advertising and referrals policy.
MEGHR LTD, registered in England and Wales, company number 16502703. Registered office: 167–169 Great Portland Street, 5th Floor, London W1W 5PF. Questions about this policy: [email protected].